The Cathar watched as the two crew members of the Scimitar approached the guard and spoke with him, even managing to get the feline inside with them. He followed as they entered, but gave a loud growl and showed his teeth to the guard as he passed. Once the door closed, Jhamrok turned to Jyot and Latch and looked at them suspiciously like observing their mannerisms and trying to read anything about them from their body language.

"Who's your captain?" he finally asked after a while once he had managed to deduce that neither of them was really in charge of their two-man group. It wasn't hard to deduce it and neither was the point that they had a well guarded ship, possibly by sentient beings, since they were comfortable enough not to carry heavier weaponry or equipment with them and seemed ready to leave as soon as they got a new job.
"I would wish to make arrangements for you to get me off this station in your ship" Jhamrok continued while staring at the two.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

"Captain's Alec Tannis," Jyot said, not at all intimadated by the burly Cathar. An experienced spacer Jyot was confident in his ability to protect himself, and besides, he and Latch had been to this station so many times it was almost like a second home to them. "And our ship's the Scimitar." He grinned proudly. "Suppose you've heard of it," he continued. "Most spacers in this sector have." He held up his finger. "But we're not a passenger ship, per se. We're hunters, like you." His eyes flicked over the Cathar. "Well... not exactly like you since we're Corellian and don't do assassinations, but you get the general idea."

Jyot looked across the room. It wasn't crowded, a few tables here and there with the notorious and not-so-notorious and a few wannabe-notorious sharing a drink, some conversation, and possibly information on their next job. And at the table in the back, sat Zeek--comfortable, casual, and looking rather relaxed and unhurried as usual.

Turning his attention back to the Cathar, Jyot said, "Now, Jhamrok was it? My captain charged me and Latch here with gettin' us a new job. Mainly 'cause he's got other things to do, but that's besides the point. But he didn't say anything about picking up any more passengers. Still... you look like a capable sort. And we might be able to convince the Cap'n in taking you on as an 'enforcer,' if we get another job. Temporary-like, mind," he added. "The Cap'n likes sure bets when it comes to crew. Can't be too careful in this business. You understand."

He nodded to the table Zeek was at. "We're going to talk to Zeek o, see what he's got going, and you're welcome to come and sit with us. But do as Harvey said. Don't try to get Zeek to give you sanction to assassinate or you can find another way off this station on your own. So, what do you say? Make peace for the moment, and settle your grievances later?"

"The Scimitar, eh? Alec Tannis is the captain of the ship nowadays?" Jhamrok asked after all the questions were asked and gave a hearty laugh.
"I doubt your captain wouldn't hesitate to say no to my presence. Last time I was aboard that ship, Alec scrubbed the floors and I was barking orders as the first mate" Jhamrok noted and gave another hearty laugh before crossing his arms in front of his broad chest and turning to see Zeek. He shook his head slowly with a glint of joy showing in his eyes.

"Oh, but go ahead. I'll follow you to your ship after you're done. I doubt I'll be any good for a job now that I have no ship to travel in. It's a shame, really. My ship was a beaut..." the Cathar told them and leaned against the wall, waiting for them to approach Zeek and do their thing. Frankly, he couldn't wait to see the Scimitar and Alec again. It wasn't really a shame he had left his post on the ship only slightly before the incident that caused the loss of most of the crew, but it would be fun to see how the ship had been repaired and if it looked anything like it used to.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

"Ah, so you know the captain and the Scim already, eh? Must've been before our time," Latch said, indicating himself and Jyot. "With the way Alec's been these past few weeks, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind taking on another crewmember." He shot Jyot a surreptitious glance and grinned slightly behind his hand as he scratched the side of his face.

Pulling a chair up at Zeek's table, Latch twisted it around and sat, his chest pressing into the backrest as he eyed Zeek. "So, do y'have anything for us today, Zee?

Though Raelyn had pleaded with Colin to come into the station with her, the doctor adamantly refused, and insisted that his sister ought to stay with him. To this, she reluctantly agreed, "but only if I can decide what we're watching on the Holo-Net." A little amused, Colin agreed. They had been watching for a short time, with Colin protesting only twice, as Raelyn was flipping channels at a rapid pace, almost faster than Colin could track. When she finally stopped flipping, Colin realized they'd landed on a public Imperial execution. His heart lodged itself in his throat.

"What is this?" he demanded hoarsely. Raelyn glanced at him for only half a second.

Alec looked up at his new Pilot. “We’re on a Space station with a bar called ‘Shakers’ and it’s only been twenty minuets. Once you’ve been around longer you’ll come to realise if Jyot can ogle at women, he will, for a very long time.” He laughed.

“So how you been finder The Scim?” The Captain asked. “All running Smooth?”

Kadis grinned and leaned back, scratching his neck as he did so. "I know the type, boss. Just has to stop and look at the Twi'lek in the short skirts." He shook his head

"The Scimitar is running fine, as far as I can tell. He must show nearly as much attention to the ship as he does to dancing girls. Runs like a new boot, although it could do with a restocking of holodramas, I must have watched the entire Face Loran Collection twice in transit."

Zeek sat at his private table with a Datapad in one hand and a Cigar in the other, as the two humans and Cathar approach he inhaled one puff of smoke. Placing the datapad on the table he looked and smiled at the Bounty hunters.

“Tyrell and Vax Right?” The professional middle-man asked knowing he was right. “You’re on Tanis’ crew right. I hope he’s fine.”

Jyot shared a secretive look with Latch, and then said, "Yeah, Alec's doing ok." He motioned to an empty chair. "You busy? We've got some spare time and wondered if you might... know of a job going that we might be interested in."

“That depends on the kind of work you’re looking for.” The large man stated pointing his cigar at the chairs inviting them to sit.

"Easy work, Zee," Latch said, taking a seat. "Our last job didn't turn out so great, so something like a blue milk run is definitely in order."

Zeek laughed at the ‘joke’ Jyot had just made. “Blue milks are in short supply these days.” Zeek informed as he took another puff of his Cigar. “The Empire are making the simplest of jobs harder than those old Jedi Trials.”

“Well, we could do with a simple, and most importantly, a paying job,” Jyot said.

Latch nodded in agreement. "Money's good, and even the most meager amount would be a vast improvement over our last payday. Not that you should give us something low-paying, that is," he added hastily.

“I have a couple of jobs for low level smuggling into the Core, although I have got some enforcement work that may be more up your alley.” Zeek explained looking down at his datapad. “Unfortunately the only bounty job I got is anything but simple. I’ve had it about five months and no one’s accepted it, I mean who would want to go after ‘the Sisters’?”

Jyot's brow raised with interest. "The Sisters?" he queried.

"Don't think Alec would be too interested in smuggling or enforcement, to be honest," Latch said, wrinkling his nose. "So tell us about the bounty work."

"Yeah,tell us more about these 'Sisters'," Jyot prodded encouragingly.

“I’d have thought people in your line of work would have heard about them.” The contractor stated leaning in closer. “They’re jewel thieves--five of them, the best.” He took the datapad and brought up their files and handed it to the mechanic.

“They had the misfortune of getting on the wrong side of a Crime Lord in Nar Shaddaa. You probably heard of her. Carmen? Anyway, she contracted them to steal something for her and they gave her a fake.”

"And now Carmen wants someone to track them down," Latch said, finishing the line of thinking. "It surprises me someone like her would let this go for five months."

“She hasn’t.” Zeek informed. “The last ten of her men she sent after them all ended up with toe tags or haven’t been seen since, word has it she’s been after them a year now but has only offered the contract to independents the last five months. Long story short, she wants them alive and Carmen’s a woman whose use to getting what she wants.”

Latch sighed at his friend. "Yeah, that sounds about right for us," he told Zeek, scratching his head. "We could probably get them to give themselves up by sticking them in a room with Jyot for a while. They'd be running to Carmen within hours."

"Hours?" Jyot stared at his friend deadpan. "Ow, Latch, that hurts." He put his hand over his heart. "Right here." He grinned then. "But yeah, Zee, the job sounds right up our alley."

“I wouldn’t take this job lightly.” The older, wiser man warned. “These women are attractive, intelligent and extremely deadly. Look download the data into the chip attached to the pad and take it back to your ship, if you still want the job go at it at your leisure.”

"Right...how much is Carmen paying?" Latch asked.

“Twenty thousand a piece, which you can double if you bring all five.” Zeek informed, taking another puff of his cigar. “But if you want my opinion, I’d get as far away from this job as you can. Trust me you do not want to get tangled up with ‘The Sisters’.”

"Leave it to you to give us something crazy when we ask for something easy, Zeek," Latch groaned, only half-mockingly.

“If they’re pretty, I wouldn’t mind getting tangled up with them,” Jyot assured Zeek. He exchanged a look with Latch. “We’ll take the job.”

Zeek laughed once again. “As I said easy is as rare as finding a Jedi these days. In these times easy is hard, up is down and light is dark.” Zeek smiled. “If you’re this determined I’ll consider it yours, but remember even if they don’t kill you, failure will put you on Carmen’s bad side.”

With the new-found free time on her hands, Ellie had managed to find her way into the smaller ship's docking bay, a smile lighting her lips once she'd realized what she'd found. She wasted no time hesitating before practically throwing herself in the cockpit. Seeing as she was the new pilot for the fighter, she figured that she was entitled to getting accustomed to it and its controls.

Running a quick diagnostics, she watched the view screen display the many different systems, upgrades, and modifications that had been made to the small craft throughout its years of service. There was a lot that she would have to work on - adjusting it to her own personal modifications would be the first step, of course - but for all the use that she was certain this thing had seen, it was definitely in very good shape. Either the prior pilot was one hell of a flier, or she didn't give Jyot quite enough credit.

Within the hour, the would-be mechanic had already found the tools stored in the hangar and had taken them out, teasing the crane that kept the ship secure and in place until its hull was hovering just above the durasteel floor. With her orange jacket left hanging from the corner of the wing, gloves that seemed almost too big for her slim wrists and tiny hands had appeared on her wrists, along with a pair of goggles over her eyes. Ducked beneath the ship's hull as she was, making her own adjustments to the systems of the machine, her small frame seemed to all but disappear from sight.

After stunning her brother with the revelation that others were dead when the two of them should have been, Raelyn opted to wander the ship. Just to be familiar with the place, she said. But she wasn't really trying for that. After all, she'd already been over every nook and cranny she could find. It was the minds aboard the ship that fascinated Raelyn Lark. And as she wandered down into the cargo bay, she sensed a mind absorbed in technical jargon.

"Great," she muttered aloud. "A techie..." She recognized the mental voice as Ellie's, and decided on a whim to drop by for a visit. It wasn't very difficult to find her, though she was all but hidden from view beneath the Headhunter. With a crooked smirk, Raelyn watched and listened for a moment. Then, she spoke:

"Captain, if you don't mind my asking...back on Bryndar, before she was killed, you started talking about us helping the Jedi with something. What was it that she needed? And why did you trust her?"

It was probably a little too prying, but it had been bothering Kadis for a long time. Bounty Hunters don't tend to about face and start helping their targets at random. He figured there were three possibilities - 1: She offered Tannis a lot of credits, even more than they'd get if they turned the Jedi in. 2: She appealed to Tannis' good nature, which wasn't unlikely. The Captain was a merciful sort, as evidenced by them not wasting each and every one of those mercenary thugs in the cave. Or, 3:, the Jedi had warped his mind using her powers.

Ellie had been so wrapped up in her work that she hadn't even heard anyone enter the hangar bay. At the sound of the voice, he jolted in surprise, an action which resulted in a hollow thump as her forehead collided with the hollow hull. She let out a hiss of air in a soft grunt, laying back down against the floor again and putting a hand to her head as she dropped the hydrospanner in her hand. Sliding her way out from underneath it, she shook her head and looked up at the person who entered. "Oh...hey, Raelyn." she said. It was a surprise to find the telepath here - and she couldn't help but wonder...was she listening to her thoughts right now? A rather unnerving idea.

Raelyn cocked her head to one side thoughtfully before mimicking Ellie's intonation and saying, "Oh... hey, Ellie." She smiled faintly and answered Ellie's unspoken thought. "Ye-es, I can hear what you're thinking. Unnerving. Good choice of words." She blushed slightly. "But... I don't have to... to listen in, you know."

After a moment of tense, uncomfortable silence, Raelyn cleared her throat. "So, umm..." She tapped her own forehead and then gestured to Ellie. "Headache, much? Cole can help with that..." Without waiting for an answer, she went on. "I... take it you're enjoying yourself?" She gestured to the fighter. "With that..."

Arelyn had used most of her down time to procure more munitions for the crew. Their last excursion had left them running a bit short on ammunition as well as money, so she had been forced to get the barest of supplies with the scant few credits she was given. Still, it was a decent load, enough to last her and Latch for a few firefights and enough for her to have to rent a hover cart to take back to the ship.

She'd also taken the time to check in with her fellow Mistryl on Emberlene. Being part of the sisterhood of mercenaries of the scorched planet, she made it a point to send a portion of whatever she made back to her homeworld to help in the rebuilding efforts. She didn't have anything to send as a result of their latest mission, but still took the time to keep in contact with the rest of the Shadow Guard.

Pulling the cart up alongside the outer hull of the Scimitar, she guided it to the loading area towards the aft of the ship. Keying the access panel, she pulled back as the ramp lowered itself to the ground, then drove the cart up onto it and into the main cargo hold. As she headed for the supply section, she spotted Ellie leaning up against the Headhunter, speaking to Raelyn. Them being the two newest women added to the bounty hunting crew, Arelyn idly wondered what they could be talking about.

Alec thought for a few moments and about the new pilot’s question, in truth he wasn’t entirely sure why he agreed to help the Jedi. At the time it just seemed like the thing to do given the option between that or claiming the bounty on the Jedi. At the end of the day he didn’t particularly like the empire to help them out but he also had no love for the Jedi.

Every event no matter how small affected everything else in the universe, that was the law of Chaos and that was what he believed. Tanis’ believed his choice was the accumulation of all that had happened before, the force wanted it so he chose to help the Jedi.

Tanis stood up from his chair and looked down at the pilot. “I do.” The Captain replied to the first part of Kadis’ question, he didn’t feel he needed to explain his reasons for what he did whether he knew the reasons or not.

Alec left the room and went down to the cargo hold as he knew eventually Jyot and Latch would return with news from Zeek. When he got there he saw his other gunner looking over towards the hanger. “You know it’s a little rude to listen in on other peoples conversations.”

"Oh stop looking like you've just hit the jackpot," Latch chided his Jyot as he and the lecherous mechanic made their way back to the Scimitar, followed by Jhamrok the Cathar.

The glint in Jyot's eye was unmistakable. "But Latch, we have hit the jackpot, don't you see?" he reasoned to his friend. "Gorgeous women as a bounty!"

Latch shook his head and rubbed his temple in resignation. There was no reasoning with Jyot when he was like this. "Yeah, yeah. I just hope your jackpot doesn't end with you having a vibroblade between your shoulders."

"Better hope Alec doesn't stick you on ship duty while we're out finding them," Latch remarked idly as they rounded the corner to the bay where the Scimitar was docked. As the ship came into view, the Corellian gunner turned and looked at Jhamrok. "Is she as you remembered her?" he asked the Cathar.

Jhamrok looked at the Scimitar and frankly was stunned. The bag that the station officials had given to him of his salvaged belongings dropped to the floor as the Cathar shook his head.
"She's... Changed" the Cathar noted as he stared at the ship.
"It's like coming from a bounty to a familiar strip joint only to find that all the girls have gone fat, if you catch my drift" he said before grabbing his bag back from the floor and swung it over his shoulder.

"It's no wonder really. I heard she's been through a lot. But still I'd rather see her the way she was" He explained as he walked past the two men and walked towards the cargo hold ramp like he had done so many times before. But this time he first walked to the hull of the ship, knocked on it and slid his hand on it's surface in order to get the new feel to it. His hand found it's way onto the button that opened the ramp from outside and pushed it. The motors and hydraulics began churning the ramp down and the Cather made his way back from the ship, waiting for the ramp to lower. As the ramp hit the floor with a metallic clank, Jhamrok stepped onto it and grinned.
"Anyone home?" he called out, knowing all too well that if Alec was around there somewhere waiting for his crew to return, he would recognize his voice.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Alec turned as he heard the familiar voice, he didn't recognise it straight away but when he saw the Cathar it belonged to he smiled and let out a small laugh. “Well give me a re-breather and call me Vader, if it isn’t Furball himself.” Alec continued smiling knowing full well his old commanding officer would dislike it, but considering he was the ships captain now Tanis knew he’d get a way with it. He walked towards the bounty hunter and held out his hand to shake it. “It’s been what, 6 years?”

"I'd say too long with the condition you've gotten her into, rookie" Jhamrok answered and looked around at the insides of the cargo hold before shaking Alec's hand. It was apparent Alec had changed the exterior as well as the interior and Jhamrok couldn't rely completely on memory anymore. And even so, every system in the ship had probably been upgraded a few times since he was the second in command.

"I have a slight problem, actually. A lowlife crime boss blew up my ship and since Zeek won't give me clearance to go after him on the station, I need a ride off" the Cathar told Alec and grunted.
"I can pay you and any planet with an opportunity to buy a new ship will do, unless you need some muscle with you"

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

After a while of merely staring at Ellie and having Ellie stare back, Raelyn grew bored of the situation and her mind began to wander. Just to be unnerving, she continued to stare at Ellie, but her mind was elsewhere, as she took note of Alec and Arelyn in the cargo bay and... what was this? A new mind? How fascinating...

"So umm," she said to Ellie. "Have, uh... have fun with your... toy, ok?"

And with that, she withdrew to get a look at the newcomer. At the sight of the large, furry, Cathar, her eyes widened and she let out a small exclamation.

"Nice!" she muttered under her breath. "Quite so, yes indeedy..."

And with that, she approached him, extending her hand. "Don't much care what the captain says to your question there, but may I just say, it's a great pleasure to meet you... sir." A pause. "I... I'm Raelyn Lark, sister of resident doctor, Colin; user of aggressive action... oh, and resident psycho, too..." She grinned widely. "And you're..." She stopped abruptly, realizing she'd very nearly told him his own name after gleaning it from his surface thoughts, and stretched out her syllables into, "... ouuu're-are?"

“Well I ain’t one for taking passengers but I can give you ride to our next port wherever that may be. Speaking of which I should probably find out where that may be.” Alec replied to the ships former first mate, he then turned his focus to the two crewmen behind the large Cathar. “So what’s the news, got any work from Zeek?”

Jyot first exchanged a quick glance with Latch, and then broke out into a broad enthusiastic smile. "Have we got any work from Zeek?" he repeated Alec's question. "I'll say we have!"

He motioned for everyone to follow him to the common room. "You're going to love this," Jyot said to Alec, his face beaming as he plugged in the data cylinder Zeek gave him with the information on their latest job. "At least, I'm going to love this," he added under his breath.

The viewscreen began to show a recording of a video feed from a security camera.

A human woman, early twenties with a slim athletic build, fine delicate features, flawless skin, and dark hair tied back in a long plait, was unloading the contents of a safe into a cloth bag. She didn't appear to be in any particular rush, taking time to scrutinize each item she removed before either placing it inside the bag or discarding it to the floor, but nevertheless she worked quickly. In less than a minute, the safe was empty, her bag full of what she came for, and she was ready to depart.

She secured the bag to her belt, and then looked upwards. A rope fell into view and with feline-like grace she began to hoist herself up, making her escape.

"That's our quarry. One of them anyway," Jyot explained as he watched the vid. "The Sisters, they're called. Jewel thieves. Five of them."

And then, something strange occurred on the vid. The woman paused, looked directly at the camera, smiled seductively, and then slowly parted her full red lips and planted a kiss directly on the camera's lens.

Jyot was glad he was sitting down as he felt himself go weak. "Oh, man...." he sighed. Entranced for a moment, he sighed longingly then fast-forwarded through the collection of vids, each one featuring one or more of the five doing their work. "Five, intelligent, beautiful, females...."

"Deadly gorgeous," Jyot said dreamily. He blinked twice, coming back to reality, and then looked at Alec. "Twenty thousand each," he said to his captain. "And double the price if we bring in all five." His mouth twisted up in a slight grimace. "Only small problem I see is that, well...." He hesitated. "The bounty has been put up by Carmen. Apparently, she contracted the Sisters to do a job for her and they tried to pawn off a replica instead of handing over the real thing. And," he added, "you know how much Carmen hates to be double-crossed. Figure this job might put us back in Carmen's good graces though. So, what do you think, Cap'n?"

Kadis put his feet up on the table after the holo finished playing. "No attempt to hide their appearance. In fact, they make certain that they're hard to forget. Anyone else get the impression that there's a little more here going on than just jewel theft?"

He had a weird feeling about this. It wasn't his Danger Sense, that was more of a tingle...he couldn't place it, but something wasn't right about this. Might just be the random Cathar that had appeared out of apparently nowhere. "Still, we are the Bounty Hunters who almost captured a Jedi Knight, taking on five Jewel Thieves shouldn't be that tough. Who's Carmen?"

"Jhamrok" The Cathar told Raelyn, ignoring her extended hand, only giving it a short glance. It was apparent that Alec wasn't too picky on who was serving on the Scimitar, something that disturbed the feline creature slightly. When Jhamrok still served on the ship the captain was very picky on who to trust with keeping the ship in shape and now would be more the reason than ever to be even more picky instead of grabbing anyone with any skill.

There wasn't nobody to stop him following the group into the common room and he sat in his formerly usual place near the entrance into the common room from the cockpit. He began rummaging through his bag in order to find out just what exactly had survived the explosion of his ship and frankly, it wasn't much. At least some of what was his armor had made it. If not as something recognizable as armor.

"Carmen's someone you don't want to be on the wrong terms with" Jhamrok said rather casually. He hadn't paid attention to the holo, but the conversation during and after the holo had caught his ear. He turned his eyes from the insides of his bag to Alec and sighed.
"Please tell me you didn't get on the wrong side with Carmen"

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

“We’re on good terms with Carmen, just last week we brought her three bounties she wanted.” Alec replied to the former first-mates question before looking up at the Holo again and breathing in heavily, followed by a large sigh.

The Captain looked over at Jyot with a slightly annoyed expression. “So this dictionary of yours needs a re-write, cos for some reason it’s defined ‘easy Job’ as the five most notorious and dangerous women in the Galaxy. You are the dumbest guy in the galaxy” Alex joked with a deadpan tone perfectly aware of his exaggeration. “Then again what should I expect from you, five attractive women just get mentioned and the blood ain’t in your brain.”

Alec looked down at the table and then sighed once again. “Okay, Names and profiles on the bounties please."

“Profiles. Right.” Jyot had transferred the text-based information to his datapad, so he now took it out.

“First off, our five beauties are completely unprejudiced from who and where they steal from—private homes, public museums, banks. You name it, they’ll steal it. Their leader is a….”

He paused as the vid stopped on the marker he had chosen. A red-skinned humanoid woman with shoulder-length, wavy dark-auburn hair, wearing a skin tight black leather cat-suit with cutouts that exposed her cleavage and midriff.

“Oh, crap.” Jyot swallowed hard as he stared at the picture. Then he blinked, flushed a bit, shook his head, cleared his throat and continued. “Is a Zeltron named Jewel. Not her real name, of course. All sorts of rumours surround her from her being a fugitive Jedi to her being an android made to look and like and mimic Humans.” At this he donned a boyish sort of grin. “Cool,” he murmured to no one in particular.

“Next up,” he continued, “we’ve got Anya Zilaya. - Twi’lek – age 23 - Tech Specialist.” The screen flicked to show a light green-skinned Twi’lek woman with the physique of a dancer. She was also dressed rather provocatively—so much so that Jyot coughed. “It’s thought that she spent the first twelve years of her life as a slave until she went missing after her master was murdered. It is thought that the murderer took the young Twi’lek to someplace beyond the rim where she was trained in computing, mechanics and security hacking. She reappeared in the Core worlds about 6 years ago where she worked as a ‘Hacker for Hire’ until Jewel recruited her into the Sisters.”

The screen flicked to another beautiful woman, this one blond-haired with fine facial features. She was not dressed provocatively, but wearing body-hugging combat armour. “Kes’ne Elenkia – Hapan – age 27 – Specialising in combat and weapons. Born in the Hapes Consortium, which would explain why she’s incredibly beautiful, she’s an expert in martial arts, melee fighting, and heavy combat weaponry.” He paused, then looked at Latch. “Okay, I’ll admit, this one’s dangerous.” He looked back to his datapad. “She’s got a criminal record for a whole load of minor charges—assault, battery, grievous bodily harm.” He frowned at bit. “Since when was GBH classified as minor…,” he muttered. “Anyway, she hooked up with Jewel about two years ago.”

The vid now displayed a dark haired woman with a myriad of black tattoos emblazoned on her face and arms. “Vasxen Geb - Kiffar – 30 – Pilot. Self-taught, apparently, but good enough to abscond a ship from a spacedock and leave her home system.” He started to grin, and then looked at Latch and Alec. “Hey, it says here that she trained at the TCTA and graduated top of her class. Erm, that’s the girly equivalent of CorSec Academy for those of you non-Corellians. Anyway, this is the only one that Jewel actively recruited.

“And finally, we have….”

The screen now displayed the dark-haired beauty from the first vid clip that Jyot had shown. “Lara Ke’dem – age23 - Corellian – In….” A wry grin appeared, and he snorted. “Infiltration specialist.” He inhaled sharply as he read further. “Oh my…. Ok, back on track here. Says here she’s trained in drama, dance, martial arts and….” He raised his brows. “…acrobatics.” He looked up at the picture and let out a sigh. “Focus, Jyot, focus,” he said to himself and he forced himself to look back at the datapad.

“Ok, erm... born in Coronet City, daughter of a theatrical producer, went to school at… blah, blah, blah. Oh.” He paused, looked up at the picture on the screen again. “Aw, what a shame. Glitterstim addict. And so pretty, too.” He shook his head sadly, then read some more. “Anyway, she moved to Coruscant, has a criminal record for a score of drug related crimes and thefts, and then it appears that….” Again he paused. And brightened. “Oh! Looks like this Jewel’s not all bad! Took this one off the streets, got her off the spice and then made her the front woman for infiltrating places that require some form of acrobatics or extreme flexibility.” He looked up at the picture again and grinned. "Wow. I think I'm in love," he commented.

“So, that’s the low-down,” he continued, now looking at Alec. “All we have to do now is figure out a place to start looking for them.”

"For Force's sake, it sounds like you guys are watching a porno in here."

Ellie wasn't exactly the cleanest on board at the moment - even with her distraction with the telepath woman, she had still been working on modifying her (yes, in her opinion, it was hers now) fighter to fit to her style for several hours now. In the midst of the dismantling, cutting, rewiring, reconfiguring, and rerouting she'd been doing - not to mention the labor of having to take off and replace ship armor as she went - she wasn't quite as...clean...as she had been a few hours prior. Grease stains were on her pants and a few smudges were on her bared arms; the leather gloves she wore, with wrists too big for her own, sported a couple fresh burn marks from the wiring. Her orange jacket was tied loosely around her waist, her matching hair disshelved. She took one glance at the image still up on the viewscreen and rolled her eyes.

"Damn I'm good." she muttered sarcastically as she moved to grab a bottle of water that she had left sitting on the counter at the far side of the room earlier. "Can't boys find anything better to do with their time?"

Arelyn crossed her arms and snorted as she leaned up against a bulkhead, staring at the holoprojector images. "You certainly know how to pick them, you two," she remarked at the pair of Corellian men standing in the middle of the room. "At least the bounty is good, even if we don't capture them all. Did Carmen specify if she cared if they were still breathing when we bring them in?"

“Carmen always wants her bounties alive.” Alec stated looking at the screen then turning to Arelyn. “Corpses can’t scream.” Carman wasn’t one for killing or having her adversaries killed, if you wronged her she wanted to punish you, if you stole from her she would punish you and then make sure you’d pay her back, after all killing someone who took from you wouldn’t necessary get the thing back.

“The Sisters are notoriously hard to find, even if you want to employ them.” The captain informed “The only way to find them is to have them find us.” He grinned.

Jhamrok watched Alec with slight amusement of him acting senior in the group, which he was in the end since the Cathar was merely a passenger for now. Nonetheless he had a strong urge to pitch in on the bounty. As the tall being stood up and stretched with a cat-like groan, he swung his bag over his shoulder and rested his other hand on his belt, near where the blaster hung.
"Even if the sisters would not like to be found, they can be. There are ways" Jhamrok noted before grinning at Alec and tapping his feline nose.

"And here I thought we had actually taught you something" Jhamrok noted and walked to the holoprojector and the projected hologram of the Corellian woman. He extended his hand with a grin, sinking it into the hologram and scratching the chin of the woman.
"They don't need to be lured. There's always a pattern and if you can't easily piece one together, there's always a last crime scene where to start the hunt" the cathar told them and purred with a low voice. Raelyn would have gotten a kick out of the thoughts of the Cathar at that precise moment when he purred and Alec knew exactly what that meant: the Cathar was getting in the hunting mood. The next phrase was something Alec had heard before from every single member of the old Scimitar and one that formed the main mentality of being on and being chosen to be one the ship:
"The joy is in the hunt"

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

“If you want to join us on this job we could use the help.” The Captain informed the Cathar. “The Sister are going to be a most difficult prey to bring in.”

Alec stood up from the table and looked around at the group. “So we need a plan to first locate the Sisters and then to actually capture them, as Latch has said these Ladies are dangerous, they have a rep for being elusive so it will make both tasks difficult. As they say ‘The female of the Species…’ So ideas anyone?”

"I don't know much about Bounty Hunting, but I do know how to bluff. Hauling Corusca Gemstones past CorSec requires a good bit of finesse." He grinned. Finally, something besides piloting he could put his hands in. "We go to ground on some wealthy planet. Say, Alderaan. Put out our feelers through the local criminal networks that we're looking for some very, very skilled Jewel Thieves. In the meantime, we scope out the local museums and try to locate some kind of potential target, preferably something that can be measured in millions of credits."

He glanced around. Hard to tell what the others were thinking. "We split up the crew at this point. Me, the Captain, Ellie, and Jyot are group one. One of us carries a tracking device. I'll do it, I know ways to hide it. We meet the sisters face to face. Latch, Arelyn, Colin, Raelyn, and...uh, the Cathar are group two. Oh, and they can have Zip too." This plan was worth it just to get Zip out of his face.

"If we're lucky, Jewel or one of her compatriots show up with an offer. If she's a good con artist, and I don't doubt she is, she takes part of the money in advance before running of with the jewels for herself. So, we give her half of what she wants in advance, but we demand to see the rest of her group to evaluate them before we give them the rest. Group One goes with Zip, while Group Two follows in an airspeeder. We arrive at whatever hideout they're using. Group one has a nice negotiation while Two moves in and dumps Coma Gas grenades in through the doors. It's knockout gas." Coma gas wasn't exactly well known in the more legitimate circles.

"Then, we all wake up later, group one in the Infirmary, and Jewel and her friends in the cells."

There were quite a few flaws in the plan, namely, that Jewel would show up at all, that she would take them back to her hideout, that they could pull together enough raw credits to pay half of her fee, and that Jewel wasn't expecting exactly this kind of attack.

"That's quite ambitious," Arelyn said, uncrossing her arms and stalking up to the middle of the room. "It's also risky and a bit impractical from the monetary side. We don't have much money to just throw around like that. We can't borrow it either, because there's no guarantee we'd get it back from the thieves and then we'd be in debt to some Huttish loan shark."

She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and tied it with a band from her wrist. "You did have a good thought, though. To get them interested in us, we'll probably have to go through a bit of subterfuge. Before that, however, we need to find out as much as we can about them, without alerting them, of course. If we just start asking around about a bunch of beautiful jewel thieves, word is bound to get to them at some point and they'd be on alert, which isn't what we want.

"Alec," she said, addressing the captain, "do you know of any trustworthy information brokers that we might get in contact with?"

Raelyn had intended to say a few things, but it certainly didn't help her concentration to be hearing the slightly more animalistic thoughts of Jhamrok as he submerged deeper into his hunting instinct. She opened her mouth at least six times in attempts to say what she had in mind, but the Cathar's thoughts were frustratingly loud and she kept losing her train of thought.

"Wuh..." she attempted, firing off an annoyed glare at Jhamrok. Determined to overpower his thoughts with her own, she pressed on determinedly. "W-uh... wweee, have mmoney, if thaat's... youuur... onleee stick... stick... sticking point..."

It was at that moment that Colin decided to make his appearance and he frowned at his sister. "Rae, are you alright?"

In response she mumbled a few curses under her breath and departed with just one word. "Mmooney..."

Colin stared after her, puzzled for a moment. Then, the light clicked on. "Ah, money!" He nodded. "Captain, back on Bryndar we mentioned that money wasn't an issue. Now that we're on the crew, that still applies. You need money for something, don't hesitate to ask."

As an afterthought, he leaned forward to see the viewscreens the crew were looking at... and flushed quite red. "Oh... that was... unexpected..."

Jhamrok stared at the recording intensely while listening to the suggestions. The clear thought of disappointment crossed his mind at the new crew and he silently backed away from the screen. From the corner of his eye he noted a glare from Raelyn, but made nothing of it for the moment. The main thing in his mind about the woman was that the mixed breed lady was somehow deficient in brain cells. Especially after she couldn't even speak right. As Colin spoke, he turned to look at him and grunted.

"Money you will need on this mission. Especially with suggestions like the ones you're getting, Alec" Jhamrok said, being rather annoyed of the whole new crew of the ship. As he walked past Colin, his nose took a familiar scent into it and his mind started racing. Not because of the Scimitar's new bounty mission, however, but because he knew the scent well. Frankly, he had trailed the West siblings several months before dropping the case after finding out it was an Imperial deal. The feline hunter wasn't necessarily against the Galactic Empire or it's structure, but it's ideals and policies were something he disapproved of. As for the Rebels, you couldn't call Jhamrok any more a sympathizer towards them than the Emperor.

In any case, he stopped after getting the scent and inhaled swiftly a few times as if to gather more of the scent before smirking and moving for the door to the kitchen.
"I'll be around if you need any help, Alec" he noted with a smug smile before moving inside the kitchen area and throwing his bag on the table. Instead of moving to search for something to eat, he sat down and rummaged through his bag, grabbing a chip that had survived from his ship. His eyes glistened as he connected the chip to his holopad and began searching through past bounties. The scent he knew, but the name avoided him, no matter how close to the tip of his tongue it was. A face or a name would be all that was needed for the connection of the scent and a bounty and if it was truly worth continuing a bounty he had dropped.

No more than five minutes afterwards did Jhamrok come across the face of Aidan West, reportedly captured and executed by the time he viewed the data. His eyes drew into lines as he pondered the matter, placing the open holo of Aiden on the table for anyone to see. His hairy hand went to his face and scratched his chin as he thought of the matter and how to confirm his suspicions of Aiden being the ship's doc. His nose never made a mistake, he was sure of it.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Kadis nodded at Arelyn. She had a good point. Not surprising, from where he was sitting, Arelyn seemed like she had the best head of the crew. "I wasn't suggesting we just had Jewel a stack of thousand-credit chits. If we want to go for that generic sleazy criminal feel, we get a bunch of stacks of credits together in a nice-sized black briefcase, show it to her, and then demand to see her crew before she gets the first payment. After that, it's a fairly simple matter of dragging out the negotiations."

He ran some thoughts through his head. She was right about information. Unfortunately, he didn't know of any decent contacts unless they wanted to start dealing with Black Sun or the Hutts and that's a kettle of fish he'd be happier keeping his hands out of. I think I mangled that metaphor...

Then, naturally, Raelyn had some kind of loony fit. Not really surprising...she's not exactly mentally stable from what I've seen. She probably heard that, too. Ever since they had learned she was 'telepathic', he'd been uncomfortable. Might have something to do with not being alone with his thoughts.

The alien left the room, apparently in a rather sour mood, but that was hard to read. Duros always seemed to look mournful, who knew with Cathar. Better off sticking with humans, at least you usually don't have to worry about some of them having extra senses or an eye in the back of their heads.

((Joint post with BKK... and we do apologize for just exactly how long it got ))

Raelyn entered the kitchen not long after Jhamrok left the holo up for anyone to see. She recognized the photo immediately. That was the man whose life was taken in place of her brother. Forcing herself to remain emotionless, she sat at the table, staring at the picture.

"Someone you know?" she asked the Cathar hunter.

Jhamrok turned to see Raelyn as she questioned the picture of the reported Aidan West. Silently the Cathar nodded before glancing at the photo.

"Not necessarily know. An old bounty I traced for some time" he said before smirking and having his nose twitch as if to gain the scent of the man back.

"Something brough this bounty back to me here on the ship, yet I'm not sure of it. The data reads that the bounty has been captured and terminated," Jhamrok noted before glancing back at Raelyn with a curious twinkle in his clear blue eye. "Why?"

Thoughts of the comparison between the scent of 'Aidan West' and 'Colin Lark' drifted out to Raelyn from Jhamrok's mind and she shook her head.

"Right..." Jhamrok noted, grabbing the holopad and shutting it off before dismantling the added pieces from the standard holopad. His swift hands, covered in a white fur and dark tiger-like stripes, placed the pieces back to where they came from before the Hunter stood up and walked to check the kitchen for anything he might find enjoyable to drink.

"So, Cole, the doctor, is your brother? Where did he educate himself as a doctor?"

"How is he a genius?" Raelyn asked. "Graduated top of his class, had a very comfortable private practice job for a while... people liked him. He knows doctoring very well. Very well."

"Does he now?" Jhamrok noted and raised an eyebrow as his hand grabbed a drink from what could be called the fridge of the ship. His claw sank into the metal, twisting it before puncturing the top so that the delicious drink inside the can could get out. "So he would've heard of a certain Aidan West, then? Might be even friendly with him?" he noted before smirking slightly.

Raelyn laughed. "I'll admit I've heard the name before. Not in a good way, though... I didn't get the feeling Cole liked Aidan that much..."

"Then you have probably heard of his sister too. She would be about the same age as you. Some reliable sources say she's a telepath," Jhamrok noted with a grin. You didn't need to be a mind reader to see what he was trying to do.

Raelyn didn't blink. "Met her once, I think," she said. "That's fascinating, really... about the telepathy... I didn't notice."

"Truly... I have found out that telepaths can be confused by strong thoughts and natural instincts," Jhamrok noted and grinned, placing the can on the table as he approached Raelyn, pushing her towards the wall of the kitchen.

"Results vary from serious migraine to stammering speech and unusual body movements," he continued with a slight growl and took a deep breath in an attempt to take in a scent he might recognize.

Raelyn growled in return, looking about ready to give him a fight. Instead, she said, "I've heard that as well." And after a brief pause, she inquired mockingly, "Smell anything you like?"

"Rather low quality perfume, human sweat..." Jhamrok told her before suddenly scratching her hand with his claw, thus taking a small amount of her skin and possibly blood with his claw to his nose, sniffing it.

"Hmm... This is a familiar scent," Jhamrok told her with a wide grin, staring her into her eyes. "Kiffar... Human... Hapan... You're of mixed blood. Either one of very few natural mix-bloods or a test tube child."

"You missed a few mentions in the mix," Raelyn told him, her eyes and her voice going sharp. Then, she pushed, forcing him backward with a much stronger shove than someone her size should be able to give.

"What do you want?" she growled softly, taking a single step back from him now that they were both away from the wall. Jhamrok stood straight after he recovered from her push, only a few very willing steps away from the woman. The Cathar growled one single name, softly yet powerfully enough to have a cityboy with a weak mind soil his pants.

"Katrine West."

"What do you want?" she repeated, not in the least bit intimidated. Rather suddenly, the bounty hunter burst out in a deep, whole-hearted laughter. He was rather joyous of the closure and once he managed to suppress the laughter, the Cathar grabbed his drink once more.

"Only closure. Nothing more. Like I said, an old bounty. An old Imperial bounty," he answered her, spitting out the word 'Imperial' like it tasted disgusting to have come from his mouth.

Kate was caught off guard by his casual dismissal of the present situation. "You... what?" she exclaimed. Frowning suspiciously, she prodded his mind and wondered, "After discerning the truth, I'd have thought you'd be considering a mention to Tannis and turning us in..."

"The bounty is settled. I dropped the bounty long ago," Jhamrok noted as he sat down to drink his refreshment before it got warm. "The reasons are mine, so don't be prodding, Katrine," the Cathar noted and flexed his neck muscles with a pop or two from them.

Kate withdrew from his mind. "Sorry... nervous habit." She smiled faintly. "You know, I had thought through a pretty convincing argument against you talking to Tannis about this... about how it's pointless to try collecting on us since the Empire already thinks we're dead..." As an afterthought, she added, "... not to mention I'm sure you know better than I how anti-alien they are... they'd dismiss you for being out of your mind." She grinned and tapped her own nose. "But the nose knows better than the eyes. You've taught me a lesson. I can change what they think they saw... maybe I'll have to look into what they think they smell, too..."

"I'm a predator, not just a hunter like the rest of them out there. A predator never forgets nor ever leaves his guard. It is of pure coincidence I myself managed to find you," Jhamrok noted with a grin. "Your secret is safe with me. You have my word. And the word of a Cathar is honorable."

Kate smiled fully now. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "I'll leave you to your drink." And with that, she bowed respectfully to him and departed.

"You did have a good thought, though. To get them interested in us, we'll probably have to go through a bit of subterfuge. Before that, however, we need to find out as much as we can about them, without alerting them, of course. If we just start asking around about a bunch of beautiful jewel thieves, word is bound to get to them at some point and they'd be on alert, which isn't what we want. Alec," Arelyn said, addressing the captain, "do you know of any trustworthy information brokers that we might get in contact with?"

Instead of responding, Alec had looked at Jyot. Then grinned slyly while he stared at him.

Jyot stared back blankly. "What?" Then after a moment, a spark lit up in his eye. "O-oh," he said slowly. "Is that one of those 'you-got-us-the-job-so-you-figure-out-how-to-catch-the-quarry' sort of looks?"

"That's the one."

Jyot nodded. "Ok, information brokers...," he said, thinking out loud. "Well,...." He cleared his throat. "I do know of someone," he said hesitantly. "She's not so much an information 'broker', so to speak, but she's got some big connections in the jewel industry—-from the mining to the final cut. I..., erm..., I mean, we might be able to convince her to give us some insider information on the Sisters. Or at the very least have her point out to us a potential target they might be interested in." He gave his friend Latch a worried sort look. "If she'll talk to me, that is."

"Oh, no. Not...." Latch laughed out loud. "Not ...DINA!"

"Hey, it's been a long time," Jyot reasoned. "She's probably married with a dozen younglings by now. Forgotten all about that little 'misunderstanding' we had."

Latch laughed even louder.

"Hey, it was a completely honest mistake!" Jyot said defensively. "I mean, when she told me we had a 'dinner engagement' with her family that night, I didn't know she meant an 'engagement dinner'. And certainly not ours!" He shivered. The very thought of marriage was just too distasteful for him. "Like I said, she's probably married with a family of her own now, and will have forgotten all about it."

"And if she hasn't?" Latch asked, still smiling.

"Then... I'll have to think of someone else to ask for information." Jyot rose. "I'll be right back. Might as well try to contact her on the HoloNet first. That way, at least she can’t slap me," he added under his breath.

While Jhamrok and Raelyn were away in the kitchen, Jyot left and headed to the bridge. After a few minutes, he returned to the common room, but he didn't look all that pleased.

"Lemme guess," Latch said. "She's not helping."

"No, she's helping us," Jyot said, but sounding a bit unsure. "At least, she said she would. But... we have to...." He paused. "I have to meet with her first at her dad's mine. On Arkania. In person.” He swallowed hard. “And she told me to come alone.”

"Hmm, I'm not so sure Dina has a simple and pleasant tete-a-tete in mind, Jyot," Latch said.

"Yeah, well as long as what she does have in mind doesn't involve vows, signatures, or family dinners, I think I'll be alright." He looked at Alec. "So, Cap'n, is it 'Arkania here we come', or, after all that hard thought, did you have something else in mind for us to find these 'Sisters?'"

Alec Thought for a few moments then back up at Jyot. “OK we’ll play it your way, but all information and plans from now on have to go through me.” The captain turned and looked over at Kadis. “Iceman set a course for Arkania. Get us there ASAP, but avoid all imperial patrols and stations.” He then looked around as the rest of the group. “Everyone else is either going to help research the ladies in question or get prepped for battle, we’re going to need both for this job.”

Kadis stood and headed for the Bridge. Tannis had made his decision, even though this trip was likely to get Jyot killed. Meeting a spurned lover at a mine on some backwater desolate hellhole? What the hell was Arkania, anyway?

He settled into the pilot's chair and ran a checklist, idly wishing he had a cybernetic interface so he could patch into the Imperial Information Database. Ah, well, they had a long trip ahead of them, most likely.

He punched a few keys, bringing up the communications. "A-Twelve-Seventy-Six, this is the Scimitar, requesting authorization to depart the station."

A mechanical voice returned a moment later. "Scimitar, you are authorized to depart. Good journey."

Kadis activated the repulsorlifts, bringing the craft up off the hangar bay floor and spinning it, bringing them around to face the magcon field. He floored the thrusters, sending a backwash of blue fire as they cleared the bay. Iceman brought up the Navicomputer, opening a silent uplink to the station so he could pull the coordinates and almanac data of Arkania off their database. Bit of a long journey, from the Outer Rim to the Colonies...

He brought up a jump plotter. A four-way jump should be enough to get them past any Imperial patrols. Sticking to strictly Deep Space jumps would make avoiding them easier, but it'd take weeks to get to Arkania by that path. If he took the Corellian Trade Spine via the Ison Corridor, then took a quick jump towards Corellia, headed down the Corellian Run towards Nubia, then headed from there into the slice straight at Arkania...

He punched in the coordinates to the Navicomp and settled back. It'd be a minute or two before it finished the precise direction and speed calculations that would get them through or past the various stellar dangers in the area. He pressed the intercom.

"Captain, course is plotted. I can jump on your signal."

While he waited for a response from the Captain, he plugge his datapad into the ship's computer and downloaded the information he had pulled off A-12-76 into it, then proceeded to look at Arkania.

Dismay filled him.

It wasn't the fact that the place was for the most part a barren tundra wasteland where it would be a fairly simple factor to put a blaster bolt into Jyot and leave him dying on the cold wastes where it'd be weeks before anyone would find him. That's bad, but...another ice world? Where are we headed to next? The Hoth system?